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Summary List of stories Phase II Night: Ashes, Metal, And Corruption << chapter 54 Chapter 55 of 75 Whispers Of Untold Stories chapter 56 >> << previous scene Scene 2 of 3 next scene >> Location Participants Time Summary Prologue | Phase I | Phase II | Epilogue 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 Text That night, Scrivener and Luna laid together on the bedding, curled up together, both smiling and admittedly, a little sad for all their warmth. Unsurprisingly, after all, Antares had been right, as his feelings often were: Scarlet Sage and Apple Bloom had announced that they wanted to moved in together, into their own place in Ponyville. It was hard for Scrivener and Luna to accept, but... their child was growing up. Had grown up: she and Apple Bloom felt they were ready for this and... Scrivener had to agree that they probably were, even though it was hard to watch Scarlet Sage leave. They had spent a long time talking to the young mares, and Twilight had added her own gentle thoughts as well, but all supportive. It wasn't like they had any right to question or judge, after all, and nor was it like Scarlet and Apple Bloom were rushing into this: they were sharing their plans for the future, and asking for help and advice, and being up front and honest about everything. It wasn't like they were eloping or running off into the night or ungrateful, but... they wanted to pursue their own lives, and Luna and Scrivener both understood that feeling very, very well. So they would help as much as they could, as much as Scarlet Sage would allow: the Pegasus already had a job offer at a clinic, where she could train as a nurse and put her powers to use helping ponies. Apple Bloom, meanwhile, was making a good amount of money apprenticing under Cowlick, who often gave her bonuses for helping with side-projects. They had already told Applejack and Big Mac, too, and while they were sad that Apple Bloom was leaving the farm, they understood. She would still help out as she could, she would still be more than glad to do repair work for them for free and help with the irrigation systems and everything else, but Sweet Apple Acres just wasn't where she belonged anymore. She was the first Apple in a long time to not be a farmer, but... Applejack accepted that. And she and Big Mac promised to help out as much as they could. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were apparently jealous, but both of them were still trying to find their course in life and weren't yet in the best of shape to try moving out: as they had learned, just earning their cutie marks didn't suddenly make everything fall into place. Sweetie had her job at Scratch's nightclub, at least, and Scootaloo now had both Soarin' as well as Rainbow Dash to look up to... and the former Wonderbolt was glad to train and tutor her whenever Dash was too busy looking after Avalon and working with his daughter. One idea Apple Bloom had was that they could find a townhouse or something to rent: they could offer up the free room to Sweetie and Scoot, although Scrivener had smiled amusedly over at Twilight at this and noted that actually living with your friends was often far harder than just spending all your time with them. And Twilight had laughed and nodded, agreeing: it had taken them all a while to get used to each others' eccentricities and idiosyncrasies, after all. Luna smiled at this as she pushed her face deeper against Scrivener's neck in front of the flickering fireplace, murmuring softly: "Yet I think they would make it work somehow... so long as Apple Bloom and Scarlet Sage remain aware not to constantly flaunt their relationship about their home with their friends about. 'Tis very rude and annoying when any couple does that, whether they are young or old." "You're really one to talk, Luna." Scrivener snorted in amusement, but when she gave him a pointed look, he smiled after a moment and said softly: "Yeah, I know. You're physical but not... constantly cuddling up or calling me pet names. Just beating on me and biting me and hitting me. And loudly talking about all your adventurousness." "Oh, shush, beetle. I am far better at that these days." Luna huffed a bit, then she nuzzled against him before adding softly: "Still. Poor Antares was trying so hard to be supportive but... he was very upset. Yet... they did offer to let him sleep over now and then, and I know that helped, because I know they also meant it. He is like a brother to both of them." She quieted, smiling a little as she glanced down and murmured: "I am so proud of them. I am so proud of all our friends, and I am so proud of our Twilight, too... where is she, anyway? Still upstairs?" "Yeah, in the office. Writing something..." Scrivener shook his head with a bit of a smile. "Think it's either a letter to Celestia or a journal entry." "Poor Celestia. I feel for her these days, Scrivy, I shall have thee know." Luna said softly, nodding moodily as she looked up towards the ceiling. "Stuck in Canterlot so often with the Royal Council, only rarely getting to escape to her comfortable home in Ponyville, and... lonely even there so often. 'Tis stupid, Scrivy, but... at least Sleipnir and Pinkamena and others are her friends now. 'Tis sad though, that she seems to be eternally... without a pony to call her own." Scrivener nodded slowly, looking over at Luna as she looked back at him, softening. "It makes me understand how fortunate I am to have thee, and how fortunate thou art to have me. Soulmates, true soulmates... and we have Twilight Sparkle, too, as part of our odd little family." "The Norns said you were supposed to be with Twilight, not me." Scrivener said meditatively, looking down as he rubbed at the underside of his muzzle, and Luna grunted, studying him curiously. "I wonder if that was true sometimes, and I wonder if that's why... but no, what I'm getting at is... I dunno, even." "I know." Luna said seriously, leaning slowly in. "Thou wants to sleep with Celestia, is that it? Thou wants to make little monstrous babies with her. Thou art sick." Scrivener groaned and rolled onto his side, then huffed and shoved Luna off when she tried to pounce on him, making her laugh. "Some husbands would be offended at their wife offering him to other ponies, you know. Especially other male ponies." Luna only licked her lips slowly, half-lidding her eyes at him. "What can I say, Scrivener Blooms? 'Tis a fun image to think of handsome males indulging one-another. Why, stallions talk all the time of mares kissing other mares, why can't I dream of the same?" "Because no, not all stallions talk about that – particularly once they realize that if those pretty mares like other pretty mares, they're probably not going to sleep with mister stallion – and this isn't high school." Scrivener paused meditatively, looking down moodily. "Well. I think that's what they talk about in high school. I heard they're very dirty places." "We should go to one! Young, impressionable minds to play with!" Luna said cheerfully, and Scrivener sighed and reached up to push a hoof against her face, making her grumble. "Thou art no fun whatsoever." Scrivener only grunted, and then he glanced up at the sound of quiet hoof-steps, turning over his shoulder to ask curiously: "Antares, is that..." And then Scrivener simply stared in disbelief, and Luna frowned at the expression on his face and the sudden blankness of his thoughts before she looked over her shoulder herself... and both she and Scrivener stared at the sight of Gymbr: and it was no doll, but a full-fledged winged unicorn, taller than either of them, striding slowly through the living room until it reached the wall opposite the corridor, and then it simply blinked out of existence. Luna hauled herself hurriedly to her hooves, gaping in disbelief still as Scrivener shook his head, then looked up at her and asked weakly: "That. That really just happened, didn't it?" "Outside." Luna said sharply, and Scrivener nodded as he leapt up to his hooves, the two running through the kitchen and shoving through the back door. Their eyes locked on the impossible sight again, the black-fire mane strangely clear even in the darkness of the late night as it swayed slowly before vanishing into the forest, and Scrivener and Luna shot after it, running across the back yard and hurrying into the half-hidden path through the woods. The phantasm was ahead, always ahead: whenever they drew close, it faded out of sight and reappeared a seemingly set distance away. Scrivener could feel the corruption in his head boiling, and Luna was snarling as Nightmare Moon writhed inside of her, the two shooting side-by-side through the silent Everfree Forest in pursuit of the creature. It led them to the heart of the forest, to Hu and Ỏðr: the enormous ash trees were rumbling and twisting slowly, moving visibly of their own free will as Scrivener and Luna looked back and forth for Gymbr beneath the glow of the moon above. Then Luna's eyes snapped to the side, gazing past the pond and at the rock above... and she snarled as her eyes lit not on Gymbr, but instead on some other figure, laying there, prone and... Her snarl faded slowly as she stared at it, and Scrivener looked slowly up before he shivered at the glint of metal and the stench of decay already rising from the creature. Slowly, they both circled around the pond and up to the rocks, then they gazed down at the pony, carefully turning it over... and Scrivener shuddered weakly. A dull violet body, protected by plates of metal that had been gouged and ripped and torn. Neon green blood covered the monster, and Scrivener grimaced as muttered: "Looks like poison." "Let us not test that theory." Luna murmured, probing the dead body of the Clockwork Pony carefully. She looked nervously at Scrivener, but when he only shrugged, she returned her eyes to the corpse: it was definitely dead, and definitely not getting up, as she checked its pulse and then poked along it a few times to check its wounds and ensure it wasn't playing possum. "Wait, here..." She carefully grasped one of its forelegs, revealing a two-pronged, needle-like weapon extending out of its wrist. It was broken, but dripped that same green fluid... and Scrivener shivered after a moment before a voice said softly from behind them: "It attempted to poison our forest. We have been watching it for a long time now... there are others, too. Other puppets of Decretum, some hibernating, some awake and simply biding their time..." Scrivener and Luna both slowly looked over their shoulder... and they saw Gymbr, sitting calmly a few feet away from them, the androgynous creature's features beautiful and vain and somehow sad... but all the same, it made them shiver to look upon. Its eyes shone with pride and mercilessness, without a hint of empathy or compassion: only dominance, and self-loathing... a dangerous combination. "What art thou?" Luna whispered, as they both faced the being, and Gymbr studied them before it smiled almost tenderly, making both the sapphire mare and Scrivener Blooms shiver. "Foulest of monsters, thou... why does thou look upon us with such affection? Thou destroyed-" "You do not know what we destroyed, oh no. But you will. We shall tell you the story... because we desire to save ourselves." Gymbr closed its eyes, lowering its head as it whispered: "We are made of memories. We are made of desire. We are a living story... a story, believed in so deeply, that it came to life. The culmination of countless years of emotions and desires and darkness, manifested. We are your reflection, Luna Brynhild and Scrivener Blooms: we are your shadow. We are... Gymbr." It looked across at them, and Luna and Scrivener both shivered, neither speaking, feeling trapped between the Clockwork corpse and the impossible thing in front of them before Gymbr smiled faintly at them. "Do not fear us. We are you. To destroy you would be to destroy ourselves... to harm you, would only harm ourselves. You are the dreamers who made us real. You, and Celestia, and Twilight, and countless others gave us life and reality. We are simply your... imaginary friend. We are Antares' imaginary friend. He was the catalyst." Luna shook her head weakly at this, and then Gymbr leaned forwards, saying softly: "Do you know all the stories about children, who make up friends who become almost real, invisible forces and shades that can even reach out to protect them? How the child, usually gifted, is often blamed for this? But just as often, the child only helps shape it... and the parents, their devout and loving wish to protect this child... is what helps give that entity strength. You and so many others made a wish to all the forces of the universe a long time ago: to protect Antares, but not only that, sweet Luna and Scrivener, you both desired to protect the child with darkness. "So here we are. We have answered your call, and gladly; we desire nothing if not to protect Antares... the child we should have had." Gymbr looked down meditatively, murmuring: "It is too late to redeem ourselves, but we do not desire redemption any longer. We can never earn it: even before we destroyed our precious, beloved family, we lost that ability, and our feeble attempts to make up for the evils we have wrought did nothing but worsen things." "You talk like you're real. Like you came from another layer of reality." Scrivener said quietly, and Gymbr smiled at him gently. "We are real." Gymbr stood slowly up, and then it stepped forwards and reached a silver hoof up, the earth pony staring in shock as a series of strange clicks rose up before this split apart into a segmented claw that gently stroked along Scrivener's face, feeling warm and metallic and electric. "We have had so much thought and belief poured into us that from a fragment of an imaginary world, we have finally become... self-sustaining. Real. Alive. Yet still, we are made of your memories... our memories... and our dark story, our black past." Gymbr lowered its claw, then it smiled calmly, closing its eyes as this clicked loudly again before sealing back together into a hoof, and it bowed its head courteously as it said gently: "And now, we would like to tell you our story. Here, in the darkness of our forest... but allow us to get rid of that unwelcome sight for you." With that, Gymbr's horn glowed darkly, and Scrivener and Luna both staggered and looked over their shoulders in surprise as the corpse of the Clockwork Pony took on the same glow, then simply flickered out of reality. Scrivener almost fell off the smooth stone stage at this, but Gymbr reached a silvery hoof out, lightning fast, and caught him by the shoulder, saying softly in its echoing, mixed tones: "Be careful now. And do not fear, Luna, we merely sent the corpse to Ponyville. It will be discovered outside the warehouse at some point..." "Thou art going to cause a panic." Luna gritted her teeth, then she slapped Gymbr's hoof firmly away from Scrivener's shoulder after he managed to sit back on the smooth stone, both feeling trapped despite the fact that if they really wanted to escape, it was an easy jump off the tall rock over the narrow pond below. "And why should we deign to listen to thy pathetic, self-adulating, egotistical stories?" "Because we do not have much to tell... but there is much you may learn from us. And we promise that after our story is told... we will once more recede, and act as if we are nothing but a doll... and because we know that you are curious, and want to be told." Gymbr smiled kindly, closing its eyes. "Especially Scrivener." Scrivener glared at this, but didn't have a proper response as Luna snorted in derision, shaking her head violently before Gymbr's emerald eyes calmly opened, and it added softly: "And you have seen that if we desire, we can still exert great influence over this world... we do not have to be friends, but we do not have to be enemies, either. And all we desire from you is for you to allow us to continue to remain with Antares, protecting him in his waking and dreaming hours. We have escaped the nightmares to stand in the real world... and what we desire after our countless years of life and experience is to simply... rest. A particular luxury not afforded many creatures as ourselves." The two were silent, and then Gymbr smiled calmly, bowing its head towards them as it said softly: "We know what your answer will be, must be, already. But we will wait for you to announce your decision." "Why... why is it that you haven't fought with us, then? I mean... fought beside us, against Clockwork World, helped us find the answers we need, if you're so powerful?" Scrivener asked finally, and Gymbr bowed his head respectfully at this question. "Because this is not our story. This story belongs to you and Luna Brynhild... and we are not without flaw. You call us Tulpa, which is close enough to what we are... but we came into this world, a toy, inspired by a wish, brought to you by the hand of destiny... true destiny, not the self-righteous Fates." Gymbr said softly, head still bowed, eyes still closed. "We may exert ourselves to greater and greater degrees as we grow stronger, but... we must then revert. We have flaws and vulnerabilities, that can be used against us as we are now... that can be used to destroy our doll-body, and if that is destroyed, then we will cease to exist. Even ideas and stories can be killed by a sharp enough mind." "Or a bad writer." Scrivener muttered, and Gymbr laughed quietly: a melodic, strange sound that sent chills down the earth pony's spine. He and Luna traded another apprehensive look... and then, finally, Scrivener sighed quietly, looking up and saying finally: "If we let you tell us this story... you'll go away?" "We will become dormant, and we shall sleep until we are needed again. Or until we are invited back into your world... but we are aware that we are not part of your family, nor will we ever be. Still, one day we desire to walk at Antares' side... even if only as the devil that rests upon one shoulder to balance out the angel on the other." Gymbr replied softly. "Eloquent. You have such a strange way of speaking. Alien, exotic, accented overtones, and yet... under it all, I hear an animal growling. Covering up your true primal nature with fancy talk... a very old, overused trick." Scrivener murmured, looking down with a grimace, but Gymbr only continued to look at them with its calm smile before the charcoal stallion traded another look with Luna, who sighed quietly and nodded hesitantly. "We... don't have a choice." "There is always a choice. Fear not... we will keep the story short." Gymbr replied softly as it looked up, emerald eyes glowing, and Scrivener and Luna both couldn't resist gazing into the poisonous irises of the creature as it whispered softly: "Sleep." And with that single word, both Luna and Scrivener slowly laid down, eyes growing heavy, bodies losing all strength as Gymbr smiled compassionately, tenderly, and almost jealously over them, as it leaned forwards and began to whisper its stories into their vulnerable, linked mind. Category:Transcript Category:Story